Marine macroalgal biodiversity of northern Madagascar: morpho-genetic systematics and implications of anthropic impacts for conservation

Vieira, Christophe; N’Yeurt, Antoine De Ramon; Rasoamanendrika, Faravavy A.; D’hondt, Sofie; Tran, Lan‐Anh T.; Spiegel, Didier Van den; Kawai, Hiroshi; Clerck, Olivier De

doi:10.1007/s10531-021-02156-0

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…The increased use of DNA barcoding in floristic studies has allowed for more accurate and rapid diversity assessments than studies based on morpho-anatomical identifications [36,56,[78][79][80][81]. For example, recently 72 new records of algal species, including members of the Corallinales and Peyssonneliales, were reported for four shallow reef sites in northern Madagascar [81]. Similarly, DNA barcoding documented 122 CCRA species from various sites around New Zealand and identified CCRA diversity hot spots around the island [46].…”

Section: Ccra Species Diversity and Community Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates

Deinhart

Mills²,

Schils³

2022

PLoS ONE

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Successful recruitment of invertebrate larvae to reef substrates is essential to the health of tropical coral reef ecosystems and to their capacity to recover from disturbances. Crustose calcifying red algae (CCRA) are a species rich group of seaweeds that have been identified as important recruitment substrates for scleractinian corals. Most studies on the settlement preference of coral larvae on CCRA use morphological species identifications that can lead to unreliable species identification and do not allow for examining species-specific interactions between coral larvae and CCRA. Accurate identifications of CCRA species is important for coral reef restoration and management to assess CCRA community composition and to detect CCRA species that are favored as coral recruitment substrates. In this study, DNA sequence analysis, was used to identify CCRA species to (1) investigate the species richness and community composition of CCRA on experimental coral recruitment tiles and (2) assess if the coral Acropora surculosa preferred any of these CCRA species as recruitment substrates. The CCRA community assemblages on the coral recruitment tiles was species-rich, comprising 27 distinct CCRA species of the orders Corallinales and Peyssonneliales which constitute new species records for Guam. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 (Corallinales) was the CCRA species that was significantly favored by coral larvae as a recruitment substrate. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 showed to hold a valuable ecological role for coral larval recruitment preference. Lithophylloideae sp. 1 had the highest benthic cover on the recruitment tiles and contained most A. surculosa recruits. DNA barcoding revealed a high taxonomic diversity of CCRA species on a microhabitat scale and provided detailed insight into the species-specific ecological interactions between CCRA and corals. With a steady decline in coral cover, detailed information on species interactions that drive reef recovery is valuable for the planning of marine management actions and restoration efforts.

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Section: Ccra Species Diversity and Community Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates

Deinhart

Mills²,

Schils³

2022

PLoS ONE

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“…northern Madagascar (Sherwood et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2018;Manghisi et al, 2019;Vieira et al, 2021), and in comprehensive checklists of seaweeds from Mexico and the Philippines (Lastimoso and Santiañez, 2020;Pedroche and Sentıés, 2020). The comparatively higher CCRA diversity for the small, remote western Pacific island of Guam emphasizes the conservation value of tropical islands as hotspots of marine biodiversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small tropical islands as hotspots of crustose calcifying red algal diversity and endemism

et al. 2022

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In the tropics, crustose calcifying red algae (Corallinophycidae and Peyssonneliales; CCRA) are dominant and important reef builders that serve a suite of ecological functions affecting reef health. However, CCRA taxa have historically been overlooked in floristic and ecological studies because of their high degrees of phenotypic plasticity and morphological convergence that impede reliable identifications based on morphology. This study provides an update of the CCRA diversity of Guam (Mariana Islands) based on a recent DNA barcoding effort. This account of CCRA taxa is compared to (1) the most current species inventories for Guam based on morphological identifications and (2) similar floristic accounts of CCRA from other regions using DNA barcoding. 492 CCRA specimens were collected from Guam for which two markers, COI-5P and psbA, were used for phylogenetic analysis and species delimitation. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using maximum likelihood. Species richness estimates were obtained through a conservative approach using the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery method for species delimitation. A total of 154 putative CCRA species were identified, with 106 representatives of the subclass Corallinophycidae and 48 belonging to the order Peyssonneliales. When compared to previous studies based on morphological identification, molecular data suggests that all but one of the CCRA species reported for Guam were incorrectly identified and CCRA species richness is more than six times higher than previously assumed. Species accumulation curves show that CCRA species richness will continue to rise with increased sampling effort and the exploration of new (micro)habitats before reaching a plateau. Guam’s true CCRA richness might eventually exceed the currently reported species richness of all marine red algae for the island. Of the 154 putative species documented in this study, only ten closely match (≥ 98% COI-5P sequence similarity) previously described species, implying that many are probably new species to science. The here-reported CCRA diversity for Guam as a small, remote tropical island in the Western Pacific Ocean is greater than those of well-documented CCRA floras for much larger nearshore ecosystems in Brazil and New Zealand, emphasizing the value of tropical islands as hotspots of marine biodiversity.

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“…Species richness and diversity Madagascar, the world's fourth-largest island, has a long coastline of 5603 km and has a high diversity of species (Rahelivao et al 2015;Vieira et al 2021). Mattio et al (2015) mentioned a search of Algaebase giving a total of 329 species for this country.…”

Section: Madagascarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seaweed farming in Africa: current status and future potential

Msuya

Bolton

Pascal³

et al. 2022

J Appl Phycol

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Global demand for seaweed and its products has increased exponentially over the last 25 years. Equally, the continent of Africa and its offshore islands have considerable potential for seaweed production to contribute to world demand. Compared with China and the rest of Asia, Africa lags behind in seaweed production and utilisation. However, for red eucheumatoid seaweeds, Africa is the third-largest producer in the world, producing about 120,000 t (FW) annually. Details are provided for 13 African countries that are currently involved in seaweed farming and harvesting, commercially or experimentally, for export or domestic utilisation. Eucheuma spp. and Kappaphycus spp. in Tanzania represent 92% and in Madagascar 4.7% of continental production, and Ulva spp. and Gracilaria spp. in South Africa represent 1.5%. Over 2000 species of seaweed have been recorded in Africa, some of which are already successfully cultivated in other parts of the world. The environmental conditions across the continent range from warm, tropical waters to the cooler, nutrient-rich waters of the southwest, enabling the cultivation of seaweeds from the tropical, carrageenan-producing eucheumatoids to temperate kelp species. Seaweed aquaculture production in Africa, led predominantly by women, has improved the livelihoods of its coastal people. Challenges through disease and pest outbreaks, as a result of climate change, and the low prices paid to farmers are highlighted as major constraints on the development of this industry. Through scaling up and expanding current efforts in production and utilisation of seaweeds, Africa has the potential to join China and Southeast Asia as a global leader in producing, processing and consuming a wide variety of seaweeds.

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Marine macroalgal biodiversity of northern Madagascar: morpho-genetic systematics and implications of anthropic impacts for conservation

Cited by 24 publications

References 80 publications

Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates

Community assessment of crustose calcifying red algae as coral recruitment substrates

Small tropical islands as hotspots of crustose calcifying red algal diversity and endemism

Seaweed farming in Africa: current status and future potential

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